


A Legend Never Dies

by Witchgirl1234



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Heavy Angst, Long Shot, Near Death, Pain, Poisoning, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-28 23:30:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15060161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witchgirl1234/pseuds/Witchgirl1234
Summary: Bennett arrests Ava after helping the Legends and Sara can't help but feel guilty for making her girlfriend feel like she wasn't important to her.Major t/w for torture!





	A Legend Never Dies

Sara smiled as she continued to move her lips against her girlfriend's. Ava had basically been thrown onto the chair in the captain's office the moment she had stepped through the portal and Sara sat with her knees either side of the other woman's lap.

The agent's hands came up to rest on the captain's waist as she kissed her way down her neck in an effort to hold her in place.

"I love you," Sara said between between each kiss.

"I love you too," Ava replied with no hesitation and then moaned as the captain's lips made their way to a pulse point.

Sara smiled as she continued kissing. Honestly, if she had been told that she would fall in love with the uptight woman she had met on her first day at the bureau, she would have thought that it was impossible, but she slowly began to realise that Ava was more than Agent Sharpe and the more that she learned about Ava, the more she fell in love. That was only cemented when earlier that day, Ava had disregarded a direct order to go and help the Legends, she was pretty sure that Ray would be dead right now if she had listened to Bennett.

The blonde's hands moved down from her shoulder to start undoing some buttons on the now crumpled shirt and she felt the woman beneath her tense.

Sara frowned and pulled away, "is everything okay, baby?" she asked softly.

Ava swallowed hard and looked down and the captain decided that there was definitely something going on that she didn't want to say.

"Tell me what's going on, we can fix it," she insisted, sincerely hoping that the expression didn't mean that their relationship was about to end.

"There's nothing to fix," Ava smiled sadly and leaned up to kiss the other woman again, "I came to tell you that…"

Before she could say anything else, the familiar buzzing of a portal opening sounded through the office and Sara frowned as she looked over her shoulder. She had come to associate that sound with her girlfriend and since said girlfriend was currently trapped under her, she couldn't help but think that it meant nothing good.

She narrowed her eyes as Director Bennett walked through onto the Waverider with his arms folded tightly behind his back. A few agents walked behind him and Sara felt Agent Sharpe tense significantly.

The captain got the hint that Ava probably didn't appreciate the fact that she was sat on her in front of her boss, and she quickly moved off her and onto her feet.

"What's going on?" Sara asked.

Ava silently rose to her feet and looked down at the ground as she just shook her head, the moment that Sara had started kissing her, she had momentarily forgotten the reason that she was here and that she had a very strict deadline.

Bennett spared a look at the captain, and said, "as discussed Agent Sharpe, I very generously allowed you ten minutes to inform Captain Lance of your current situation, but it would appear as though you have failed to do even that."

"Ava?" Sara said quietly and looked over to the woman who appeared as though she was attempting to keep in every emotion she was feeling.

"Agent Ava Sharpe, pursuant to Article 3 section 3 of Time Bureau's code of conduct, I am placing you under arrest for disobeying a direct order from your superior officer," the director announced and the agents behind him took that as a cue to walk forward and with handcuffs.

One of them moved to grab Sara by the shoulders, something that she could easily get out of if she wanted, but the look on Ava's face told her that it would only make the situation worse.

"You can't do this," Sara said with more conviction that she felt, she really wished that she had actually read the bureau's code of conduct like her girlfriend had been asking her to for months.

"The Legends may be a law unto themselves, Captain Lance, but I expect a certain level of professionalism and obedience from my agents."

With that, the director turned on his feet and opened another portal which he walked through without even looking back. The two agents walked Ava towards it and she attempted to give Sara a reassuring smile, but it came out more strained, as if she couldn't pretend that every was going to be alright.

When Agent Sharpe had passed the threshold, Sara felt the agent holding her release her before he walked over to the portal.

The buzzing sounded again as it closed and Sara stared blankly at the empty space in front of her. Her mind was taking a minute to take in the fact that had actually happened. She fell down to the chair with a devastated sigh, though at the back of her mind, she was already planning ways that she would be able to break her out.

s

It had been two weeks since that day in the office and Sara knew that she had been jumpier and more irritable than usual.

The next day, Bennett had informed Sara that she would be allowed to visit Ava once before the trail and during that visit, Sara had felt every hint of regret that she possibly could.

Ava had only been in prison for one day at that point and she already looked smaller and more vulnerable than she had ever seen the agent look.

With Rip in prison, Sara had been curious what kind of system the bureau would use and apparently since they hardly had enough prisoners to make up a gen pop, they just went with solitary confinement, which only made Sara more sure that she would need to break her girlfriend out.

However, Ava had expressly asked her not to, she wanted the Legends to focus on defeating Mallus since she would be more likely to get a fair trial without the time demon occupying the bureau's time. Plus, she didn't want to be fugitive and she definitely didn't want to lose her position as an agent.

With the one kiss that they were allowed to share, Ava had assured Sara that she would be fine.

However, the longer that the woman was gone, without even the option to call her, Sara knew that she wouldn't be fine. It was hard enough to sleep without her girlfriend next to her and to make matters worse, there was one particular thing that she was obsessing about.

She couldn't help but think that Ava had been very much resigned to her imprisonment, which meant that she knew it was going to happen. Did Ava think that she knew she would be arrested if she went against Bennett?

She remembered specifically telling Ava that her team was the most important thing to her, so did she think that Sara would be fine choosing them over her?

"Captain Lance?" Gideon's voice called and the blonde jumped when she realised that she had allowed her mind to wonder.

"Yes Gideon?" she asked.

"Would you like me to terminate the recording?" the AI replied.

Sara blinked and realised that there was still a picture of Ava displayed on the screen of the jump ship. It was the moment that Sara had asked her out and the smile looked even better now that she was sure that she was in love with the other woman.

The captain swallowed hard. She had come into the jump ship to try and do some cross word so that she could get her mind off her girlfriend, but the moment she sat down, she realised that she now associated this activity with Ava. That was the same problem with almost everything that she did, the gym was where they sparred together, her quarters still smelled a little like the agent and there were pictures of the woman everywhere, even when she unlocked her phone she was met with an image of the woman she was missing so much.

Of course, she considered that she could just get rid of the pictures until Ava was released so that she could focus on trying to defeat Mallus, but that somehow felt like worse than being subjected to images and memories of her girlfriend almost every moment of the day. She knew that she loved her so much that there was no way that she wouldn't spend every minute thinking about her anyway.

"Yes please, Gideon," she said with a giant sigh and fell back against her seat.

"Is everything okay, captain?" Gideon asked once the image disappeared as if she didn't already know the answer. All of the Legends knew how miserable their captain was, which was why they were working so hard to try and help defeat Mallus, but progress was slow.

"I'm fine," Sara sighed and threw the book down onto the floor as she stood from the seat to leave the jump ship. She decided that she could be spending her time more efficiently. Nate had banished her from the Library so that she could go and sleep, but she hadn't been able to obey so she figured that she could go to the lab and see what Ray was up to.

However, before she made it down the hallway, a portal opened and Gary stumbled out with a frantic look on his face.

Sara came to a stop as the man stumbled into the wall, he was breathing deeply and appeared to be breathing profusely. She usually wouldn't be too worried about that kind of behaviour with Agent Green, but she was sure that he usually wouldn't come to the Legends if he was so concerned about something.

"Gary?" she asked and he looked around as if he wasn't expecting to actually find anyone, Sara grabbed him by his shoulders and asked, "Gary, what's wrong?"

Gary swallowed hard and took a couple deep breaths until Sara removed her hands and he pushed his glasses back up his nose, "I went to see Agent Sharpe before her trial and…she wasn't in her cell…"

Sara felt her stomach drop as she tried to figure out what that could mean. She couldn't really see Ava as being the type to escape, she had made it clear that she had no interest in being on the lamb and if she was to escape, she would have definitely contacted the Legends for help, right? However, she also knew that being alone really fucked with the mind, so what if she had just had enough and left and realised that she couldn't get to the Legends because Gideon was always connected to the Bureau? She was dreading the possibility that her girlfriend could currently be alone and scared.

"Did she escape?" Sara breathed.

Gary shook his head quickly, "there's no way…when Director Hunter escaped there was a bureau-wide memo saying that we had to put all of our resources into finding him. So I went and checked the surveillance…"

The man trailed off and Sara stared at him in disbelief, "Gary!"

Agent Green cringed and said, "Director Bennett thought he deleted the file, but there was enough traces of it that I could restore…Gideon could you please play File 231-AZ?"

"Of course, Agent Green." the AI replied and a second later, there was an image projected onto the wall.

Sara watched as Director Bennett walked over to the door of a cell and a moment later another man came into view and the captain felt her blood run cold at the sight of Damien Dhark.

Bennett said something to him that she couldn't hear and he opened the door. The magician walked into the room and a second later, he pulled out a woman.

Sara's breath caught at the sight of her girlfriend, she looked exhausted, pale and slightly thinner than the last time she had seen her. Dhark said something to Bennett who promptly opened a portal for him to step through.

The video ended and Sara turned to look at Gary with a very blank expression on her face, "when was this?" she asked.

"Last week," Gary squeaked, "what if he…"

"Don't say it, Gary," Sara growled, honestly she didn't think she could handle him verbalising the possibility that Ava was already dead.

s

Electricity crackled and Ava kept her eyes closed, the taser continued to rip through her muscles but she adamantly refused to scream.

With her eyes closed, she allowed herself to imagine that she wasn't wherever Dhark had brought her. All she knew was that it resembled a dungeon, one in which he was able to chain her up by her arms so that she dangled very uncomfortably in mid-air.

She was very aware that there was unimagined-able levels of pain coursing through her muscles but when she was picturing Sara smiling at her as they had breakfast with the other Legends, it was hard to focus on the pain.

"This isn't working!" Nora growled and Ava finally opened her eyes (well eye, one of them was swollen shut at this point) and she smirked at the frustrated demon-child.

Nora narrowed her eyes at the smirking agent, she had never known anyone who could be so infuriating whilst they were being tortured.

"Tell us everything you know about the totems and the pain stops," Nora demanded.

Ava shook her head but her smirk went away with a sharp slap to her face.

The Legends had four totems so far but with the exception of Amaya and Zari's they had decided to find their own hiding places until the final battle so as to stop the Dharks from finding them first.

"You've being doing this for a week, I think you need a new plan," Ava laughed despite the fact that every currently hurt she felt more betrayed by Bennett than anything. She agreed with him about arresting her considering that she had broken so many of the rules that she had agreed to follow but she didn't really feel like she could be on his side when he was so prepared to betray the bureau.

"The pain will stop if you just tell us what we want to know," Damien added from his position leaning against the wall, it had become clear that he had grown bored of this a few days ago so Ava had to wonder why he was taking so long to intervene.

"I'm good," she replied with more confidence than she felt. She knew that Sara would come to her aid the moment she found out something was wrong but she told her not to try and break her out. Plus with time travel, she could be here for years before Sara found her.

Damien unhitched himself from the wall and walked over to the dangling agent. He touch his daughter's shoulder who huffed and walked away to take his place leaning against the wall.

Ava smirked at the woman, but she did feel a certain level of pity for her. Sara told her all about what happened to Nora and it was painfully clear that having Damien Dhark as a father had robbed her of the chance to actually grow up.

She had to wonder who she could have become if Mallus had never chosen her to be his host.

"You're clearly too highly trained to give into this kind of torture, I see why Captain Lance likes you so much," he said with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Does that mean you'll let me go?" she asked.

Damien laughed and shook his head as he pulled a green tinted knife from his belt. He plunged it into the agent's gut with no hesitation and Ava took in a ragged breath, this was a whole different level of pain.

"I wonder what Miss Lance would be willing to give up for the antidote."

s

Sara paced the med bay as she waited for Wally to return.

She'd already taken great joy in beating the shit out of Bennett who was currently in a holding cell at the bureau after she got him to confess to what he did. She also managed to get a location out of him by promising not to break his other arm and with an exact location and time, the team saw no reason for the captain to join them.

Sara knew that it was because she had a history of letting her anger at Dark derail a mission and if the bastard had hurt Ava in any way, the blood lust may just rear its ugly head.

Plus, having a speedster onboard made it seem pointless for them all to go.

Still, Sara waited anxiously for some kind of sign that her assistance was required, her fingers were itching to open a portal to the coordinates already typed into the time courier on her wrist.

A second later, the need to do so was killed as yell lightening appeared and one of the bays was suddenly occupied.

Sara's eyes widened and she didn't even turn around to look at the man who had also just entered.

The first thing she felt was relief that she was once again in the same room as her girlfriend, but that was as far as the relief went as she forced herself to inspect her more closely. She was most definitely unconscious, her eye looked swollen shut, she was riddled with bruises and her right arm was bent at an unnatural angle. There was one thing that stick out to Sara though and she swallowed hard as she stepped closer so that she could see the bloodstained rip in the orange top. With a shaking hand, she pulled the material aside and sucked in a breath at the sight of the deep gash that was clearly infected.

"Ava," she managed to choke out and brought her hand up to her face, "I'm so sorry baby."

The woman didn't react, of course, so Gideon offered a reply, "I will do my best to treat her, Captain Lance."

Sara swallowed thickly and nodded and then turned to see Wally standing with a frown on his face, he looked to be deep in thought rather than horrified.

"What's wrong?" the captain asked, not at all caring that she knew there were tears on her face. Her team knew how much she loved Ava, so it seemed pointless to hide how upset she was.

Kid Flash was silent for a moment before he said, 'that was too easy…I think they let us get her…"

"Why would they…"

Sara was cut off by Gideon, "Captain Lance, we appear to have an incoming transmission from…Agent Sharpe…"

The captain drew her eyebrows together and she quickly spared a glance over her shoulder, before she said, "put them on."

She instantly tensed when a holographic image of Damien Dhark appeared, smirking down at the device on his wrist.

"This really is amazing," he gushed.

Sara clenched both of her fists at her side but just about managed to avoid the embarrassing possibility of trying to punch a man who was not really in the room, but the thought that he had stolen Ava's Time Courier unnecessarily just pissed her off to a whole new level.

Damien seemed to finally realise that the captain was staring at him with pure hatred in her eyes and he peered past her to the woman who he had just spent a week with.

"She's looking better already." He announced as that irritating wide grin spread across his face.

Sara narrowed her eyes at him and managed to keep her voice relatively even as she asked, "what do you want, Dhark?"

"Oh, I just thought that it would be polite to give your AI the heads-up that she won't be able to heal dear Agent Sharpe there," he replied, "she wasn't taking to my usual methods of torture so I thought I would try something new."

The blonde swallowed hard as the realisation hit her, the wound wasn't infected, it was oozing green for an entirely other reason.

"What did you do to her?" She growled, though she was having a hard time remaining intimidating considering the fact that she was both physically and emotionally exhausted. All she wanted to do was cuddle up to her girlfriend and get some sleep, but it would appear that Dhark was planning to once again ruin any chance that she might have of actual happiness. She was pretty sure that if the worst happened, she wouldn't be able to come back from it.

"Well, she refused to give us the information that we wanted," Dhark replied and then held up a knife that Sara was only just noticing was in his hand, "so I thought that a little poison would do the trick. If I have all of the totems that you have in twenty-four hours, I will give you the antidote and if not…well she won't last much longer than that I'm afraid."

Sara's eyes widened and she found thats he couldn't actually form any words. On one hand, there was no way that she could actually trust Dhark to give her the antidote if she gave him what he needed to prevent Mallus's defeat, but on the other hand, she couldn't imagine that he would leave her much option.

"I can see that you need some time to chew on it," Damien said, "you know how to contact me."

He wiggled his wrist with the Time Courier on it and then the projection disappeared.

"Sara," Wally said softly when she had been staring at the spot for a full ten seconds.

The blonde blinked and looked over to him, she could see the pity in his eyes and she wasn't sure if there was also a certain amount of judgement. She wasn't entirely convinced that her team liked Ava enough to be willing to give up their totems for, especially Zari and Amaya.

"I…" she began, but couldn't think of anything else to say so she instead forced her legs to take her back over to Ava. A little hesitantly, she lifted up the t-shirt again and she sucked in a breath when she saw that the laceration already looked worse. It was a slightly deeper green and there were little black veins protruding from it and it looked as though they were moving up towards her heart. She got the distinct feeling that if they reached it then it would be game over.

"Gideon?" She called in a shaky voice.

The AI was silent for a moment and Sara wasn't sure if she was double checking her scans or if she was just thinking of the right words to say, finally she said, "it would appear that Mr Dhark was not telling any lie, Captain, Agent Sharpe is currently suffering from poisoning and I am unable to identify the poisoning agent."

Sara blinked as she tried to blink away the tears forming in her eyes, crying wouldn't be helping anyone here. She was pretty sure that Ava would kill her if she gave up the totems for her, but at the same time, she knew that there was no way that she would be able to continue fighting against Mallus (or the next villain the Legends face) if her girlfriend was going to die in the next twenty-four hours.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned to look at Wally who was smiling at her sadly, "we'll figure this out," he said softly.

Sara nodded slowly, though that wasn't quite as convincing when she could see just how hurt the woman she loved was right now. She had to wonder if she had never asked her to go against the bureau if Bennett would have never tried to arrest her. There was a chance that he would have made up a reason just to get what he wanted, which then led her to see that the agent would have been safe if she had never started dating the Captain of the Waverider.

"I'll go and see if Caitlin can reverse engineer a cure," the speedster said.

Hope suddenly burst through the captain's stomach, Star Labs always seemed to be able to do some kind of impossible science, if there was anyone who could come up with a cure, it was them.

"I'll come with you," Sara said quickly.

Wally moved his hand down her arm before he took a step back and shook his head, "you should stay with Ava," he replied, "she might wake up… and Gideon might need someone to stay with her…"

Sara looked over her shoulder and got an image of the woman waking up alone and she really that Kid Flash was absolutely right. However, she also had a sneaking suspicion that he was suggesting that she should stay just encase there was a chance that this was the last time she would get to spend with her girlfriend.

Sara nodded and and fell down onto the seat next to the bed and she reached forward to grab the other woman's arm.

Wally smiled sadly at the couple again, "I'll tell the team what's going on," he announced before he sped out of the room.

Sara let out a sigh of relief, she didn't think that she would be able to handle announcing to her team that her girlfriend could very well be dead this time tomorrow.

"Please be okay, you jerk," the captain sniffled.

S

-Three hours later-

Any doubt that the Legends didn't like Ava were dashed when Sara saw their reaction to the news that she was in trouble.

Wally watched over as Caitlin as she did some initial checks over the agent and then sped her back to Star Labs so that she could get to work as fast as possible. Nate and Zari were in the library trying to find out what the poison could possibly be by trying to find out if there was any reference to match the symptoms. Ray was in the lab trying a plan B to whatever Team Flash was working on and Amaya kept coming into the med bay to make sure that Sara didn't need anything as well as bringing a wet cloth for Ava's forehead which had started to burn up. Mick handed Sara the transcript of his newest book to read the the unconscious woman and the captain had to admit that it was kind of sweet, especially since the book was pretty good.

Gideon had tried to heal Ava as much as much as possible, the swelling on her eye was now more of a black eye, her arm was in a sling but now looked far less bent than it had been before. However, she hadn't been able to do anything about the poison riddled wound and Sara was trying not to notice that it seemed to be getting worse by the second.

"Are you sure you don't want anything to eat?" Amaya asked softly.

"No, I'm good, thanks," Sara replied, though she didn't keep her eyes off Ava as she squeezed the other woman's hand.

Amaya reached over and squeezed the captain's shoulder, "I'll go and help Zari and Nate, just let me know if you need anything?"

"Sure," the captain replied and listened as the totem bearer walked away. She didn't want to turn around to look at her because she knew that she would see thing around her neck that would save her girlfriend, or at least could save her. She was trying to remind herself that her team could achieve pretty much anything, but the longer she sat next to the unconscious woman the more tempted she was just take the totems to Dhark.

She sat in silence for ten minutes with the only sound the heart monitor, which Sara had begun to find comforting.

She squeezed her girlfriend's hand again and swallowed hard as she remembered something that had been bothering her for two weeks now. The look on Ava's face when Captain Lance had told her that her team was the most important to her, she couldn't help but think that Ava was going to die thinking that she wasn't the most important thing in her life.

If she had thought for a second that Ava breaking the rules would result in any pain for her, she would have found another way to save Ray, she wouldn't have never suggested that Ava risk herself.

Sara blew out a breath and reached forward to move a hair out her face as she pulled her chair closer to to bed, she wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to wait.

As if to answer her prayers, she heard a very hoarse groan and her eyes widened as she noticed Ava was scrunching her eyes together as if she was suddenly very aware of how bright the med bay was. The captain watched in silence as the injured agent started to wake up and the first thing that she noticed was just how laboured her breathing sounded.

Agent Sharpe finally forced herself to crack her eyes open and she drew her eyebrows together as her head lolled to the side so that she could take in the fact that there was someone holding her hand.

"Sara?" Ava asked blearily, "are you actually there?"

The woman's eyes closed slightly before she forced them open again as if she was determined to make sure that this was real.

"Yeah I'm really here, baby," Sara said, trying not to let out a sob at the fact that she could hear her girlfriend's voice again, "we're just waiting for Team Flash to make you an antidote so everything will be okay."

"Antidote," Ava repeated with a slur and Sara's mind finally caught up to the fact that the woman must be heavily medicated considering how much pain she must be in at this point.

The agent's eyebrows relaxed and she seemed to forget about the fact that they were discussing the fact that she was poisoned, she figured that was what happened when she got stabbed anyway. "I knew that you would save me," she sighed and her heavy eyes began to close again.

Sara reached over to cup her cheek and when it became clear that the woman was asleep again within seconds, she moved her head so that it was once again placed in the middle of the pillow rather than lolling uncomfortably to the side.

"I really hope that we can save you," Sara sighed.

S

-Two hours later-

"I'm really sorry, Sara," Caitlin sighed as she stared at the vitals displayed on the screen, they were not changing despite the fact that she had injected her version of the antidote thirty minutes ago, "there must be another component to the poison that I'm missing…"

Sara swallowed hard and squeezed Ava's hand which was getting paler, she was really starting to question if she even had twenty-four hours at this point.

She wanted to tell Caitlin that it was okay, to thank her for trying, but no words were coming out of her mouth and she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Amaya smiling at her sadly, before the totem-bearer turned to Caitlin and asked, "is there anything else that we could try?"

The scientist drew her eyebrows together in as she considered it. A million possibilities were going through her mind, but with one major problem attached to all of them.

"Without knowing what the poisoning agent is, it's practically impossible to find an antidote," she sighed and she swallowed hard when she noticed Sara's cheeks were wet with tears. Caitlin didn't know this woman very well, but she did know that the White Canary was prone to masking her emotions with bravado, so to be willing to cry right now she had to assume that Director Sharpe meant everything to her, which was something that she could certainly understand.

"How do we find out what the poison was?" Amaya asked when it became clear that Sara still couldn't find words.

"Scans have been inconclusive. I asked Harry to use some tech from Earth-2 to try and figure it out but he couldn't either. We think that there is a magical component to the poison which makes it impossible to identify and also means that it is impossible to engineer an antidote," Caitlin explained, now deliberately only looking at Amaya as she spoke.

"So the only way to get a cure is if Dhark tells us what he used," Amaya sighed. Her totem was suddenly feeling very heavy around her neck as she inspected Ava. The agent was definitely get worse by the minute, which had been confirmed by Gideon over the last few hours. The skin was becoming increasingly paler and her fever was getting increasingly high. The black spider-like veins were moving further from the wound and up Ava's torso. The working theory was that the moment that they reached her heart, it would stop, which was something that Amaya prayed wasn't true.

The team may have hated Agent Sharpe when they first met her, but now Ava had become an integral part of the team, even if she refused to be acknowledged as a Legend. Beyond being an intelligent and skilled fighter, she grounded their captain. There was no doubt that Sara had become a better captain since she had started dating Ava since she now had someone who loved her and was willing to act as her moral compass. Sara never had to worry that she was crossing a line so long as Ava agreed with a plan and on a personal level, Sara now had someone to lean on whenever she was feeling self-doubts or grief creep in.

Sara Lance had lived through a lot of loss in her life, but Amaya was fairly certain that if Ava didn't make it through this, then Sara's repression box would break completely.

"I'm really sorry," Caitlin repeated, this time looking at Sara who was still refusing to speak or look at either of them, she didn't trust herself to not snap at the people who were only trying to help her. It wasn't their fault that her girlfriend had been sent to prison, tortured and then poisoned, it was her fault.

"What now?" Sara finally asked after a weighty silence.

Caitlin looked over to Amaya who was trying not to tense at the question. Honestly, she didn't know what the answer to that question was, Nate and Zari couldn't find anything that matched the random grab-bag of symptoms that were currently tearing through Ava's body, Ray was having just much luck as Caitlin was and Mick's only suggestion had been to find and kick Damien's ass. To be fair, the suggestion hadn't been a bad one, until they discovered that Dhark had somehow figured out how to disable the cross-temporal GPS on Ava's Time Courier.

"We'll keep trying, we still have nineteen hours," Amaya finally said and Caitlin started nodding in agreement as if she hadn't just been thinking that all hope was lost.

"Yes, we'll keep trying, I'll…go and try and help Ray with plan…C," the sometimes Killer Frost announced and basically walked away as fast as she possibly could towards the Atom's lab.

Once she was gone, Amaya put her hand on the captain's shoulder again and Sara turned around so that she could fully face her and her eyes fell straight onto the totem.

Amaya noticed and smiled sadly at the blonde, though she made no attempt to bring up the topic, she knew that Sara didn't need to be told why they couldn't give up the totems.

"It's going to be okay, Sara, we always find a way to fix things," Amaya said softly instead.

Captain Lance smiled sadly and looked back over her shoulder to Ava. She moved out of Amaya's grip and picked up the cloth to wipe the sweat away from her face.

Every second, she was yearning for Ava to wake up again so that she could tell her how important she was to her, but she knew that the woman probably wouldn't considering her condition. It hadn't looked particularly easy earlier for her to crack her eyes open.

"What do I do if it isn't?" she asked.

"Ava is strong, Sara, she'll get through this," the totem bearer said, trying to ignore the way that her stomach dropped at just how broken Sara's words sounded. Plus, Ava was undoubtedly closest to Sara on the Waverider, but she had become a part of their little family, so it would certainly be a blow to all of them if she didn't get through this. With how fresh Stein's death was, Amaya wasn't convinced that the team would be able to deal with another major loss, particularly one that would in all certainty break their captain.

"But…what do I do if she isn't?" Sara asked, now looking fully at Amaya, almost pleadingly, as if she had all the answers.

"You won't have to find out, Sara," Amaya replied, with a certain amount of stubbornness in her voice, "I promise you that we're going to find a way to fix this."

With that, Amaya squeezed the captain's shoulder again and walked out of the room.

She made it to the Library where Nate and Zari were surrounded by piles of books, and she announced, "I'm taking the jump ship to get the Fire and Earth totems."

s

-Four hours later-

"This breaks every rule Sara, I can't disobey a direct order," Ava said, with a hint of desperation behind her voice, as if she was pleading with the captain to not ask her to do it rather than just outright refusing. She knew that if Captain Lance asked her to do something, she would more than likely do it.

The captain blew out a breath and shook her head, "we don't have a choice, Ava, without you Ray will die."

"My job is important, Sara!" Ava shot back, deciding that she didn't want to mention the possibility of being charged of treason. If Ray did in fact die, it would feel like a weak excuse, she was just hoping that Sara would be able to think of another plan if she tried hard enough. Maybe she could tell how important this was to her?

"Your job is not more important than Ray, Ava," Sara retorted and the other woman clenched her jaw, "my team are the most important thing to me."

Ava bit the inside of her cheek and looked down to her courier. Bennett had been threatening her for a while now that she was on her last strike, so she figured that he was probably bluffing at this point. She knew that she was a valuable agent to the bureau which was why he had been so lenient on her so far, she just hoped that it would continue for one more time.

She input the co-ordinates and pressed the button to open a portal.

Sara blew out a breath of relief and rushed across the room so that she could place a kiss to her girlfriend's cheek and stepped through the portal.

Ava closed her eyes for a second as she tried to remember a time when there was nothing she would have broke the rules for and then she moved to follow her girlfriend.

A loud beeping brought Sara out of her deep sleep and she jumped up with a deep breath as she looked around herself. She was so exhausted that she hadn't even realised that she had fallen asleep holding Ava's hand, obviously her mind was trying to remind her of the scene she had been obsessing over for the last couple weeks.

She shook her head and rubbed her hand over her face before she looked around to see what had woken her up and any grogginess left her body when she realised what it was.

Sara stood from the chair which fell to the floor and she looked on with wide eyes as the loud screeching entered her consciousness and she saw the flatline playing across the heart readings.

She swallowed against the sudden dryness in her throat and she tried to keep her breathing equal as she shouted, "Gideon?"

There was a silence for a split second, before yellow lightening told Sara that the AI had asked for outside help. Caitlin blinked a couple times at her new surroundings, before she sprung into action, quickly accessing the situation.

She looked up at Sara for a second with an expression filled with a high amount of pity, before she grabbed the oxygen mask to place over Ava's face and she then brought one hand over the other and began pressing compressions to the agent's chest.

"What's happening?" Sara demanded.

"The defrilbulator paddles are underneath the bed, Doctor Snow," Gideon announced.

"Get Ray, Wally," Caitlin said, her voice was frantic but her compressions remained measured and controlled.

Ray appeared in the med bay and he looked around himself for a moment, but he seemed to quickly realise why he was here and he sprang into action. He took over compressions and Caitlin reached under the bed to grab the paddles.

"What is happening?!" Sara shouted this time, her breaths were coming out short and quick and she was sure that she was close to a panic attack because she knew exactly what was happening.

Snow spared her a glance as she prepared the paddles and she replied, "Wally get her out of here."

Sara didn't really register being picked up at super speed and being taken to the Library, all she was aware of was that she couldn't breathe and that Ava was legally dead right now.

"Ava," she cried and she felt arms wrap around her as she tried to make her way back to the med bay to see what was happening.

"It's going to be okay, Sara," Amaya said as she held her back even though there was a pit in her stomach. Gideon had informed the whole ship of what was currently happening and she, Nate, Wally and Zari were currently getting all of the evidence that they would possibly need that Sara wouldn't be able to deal without Ava in her life.

Sara shook her head, now full on sobbing as she tried to get out of Amaya's grip.

"No Ava!" Sara shouted as she continued to struggle to no avail, "she needs me! I need her to know she's important to me!"

They were all very aware that if she wasn't currently having a panic attack, then she would have been easily able to get out of it, but as it was, her mind was too anguished to remember that she was a trained assassin.

"She knows she's important to you, Sara," Amaya whispered, even if she could feel tears spring into her own eyes, she knew that she couldn't fall apart while Sara was in this state.

"No she doesn't, I didn't tell her!" The captain sobbed and stopped fighting as she crumpled in on herself with Amaya the only thing stopping her from crumpling to the floor.

"Agent Sharpe's heart has been shocked back into rhythm," Gideon announced and Sara exhaled deeply, though her breathing had yet to return to normal.

The totem bearer held her tightly and whispered, "it's okay, Sara, Ava is okay, just breathe."

The captain finally forced herself to stand and she turned around in Amaya's grip and buried her face into her friend's shoulder.

Wally, Nate and Zari all exchanged looks and Amaya just shook her head as she placed her hand onto Sara's shoulder to pull her closer.

"I thought Dahrk said we had 24 hours, it's only been 12," Nate whispered to Zari.

"Shocking, Damien Dahrk lied," Zari sighed and rolled her eyes at the same time.

S

Pity was never an emotion that Nora Dahrk thought she would ever associate with the Legends.

With the power of Mallus coursing through her she could think of nothing but freeing him from his prison as soon as she possibly could.

Every so often though, she would have moments of clarity and would remember how things were before the demon invaded her consciousness.

She would remember Sara and her team trying to save a scared little orphan trapped in a mental institution. Even knowing that she was related to the man who kill her sister didn't seem to deter captain Lance from wanting to help her.

Of course, when Mallus suggested using Ava to get what they wanted from Sara, it made complete sense. With his hold on the captain's soul, Mallus could see just how much Agent Sharpe meant to her. Because of Nora's connection to Mallus she could also feel it too, so when she felt a spike in Sara's anxiety, she knew that something bad was currently happening to Ava.

The plan was to get the totems and then allow Ava to die anyway so that Sara's grief would feel Mallus taking control of her.

However, experiencing Sara's pure anguish at even the prospect of her girlfriend dying was giving Nora second thoughts.

It was how she felt after her father's death and honestly she wouldn't wish that level of emotional pain on anyone, not even Oliver Queen unless Mallus was actively amplifying her hate for the Green Arrow.

Mallus was uncharacteristically silent which probably had something to do with the fact she and her father were not currently actively destroying time.

"Are you okay, Nora doll?" Damien asked as he entered the room.

Nora looked up from her lap and uncrossed her arms, she'd just been spending the last couple hours stopping herself from taking the antidote to the Waverider. They had to at the very least achieve one of their goals here, even if she was very much against the second.

To be honest, she shouldn't have the real antidote in her pocket, her father had just asked her to create some generic blue liquid so that they could trick the Legends long enough to get the totems but she used the opportunity of being left alone, both by Mallus and her dad, to make the real one.

Of course, it's efficacy would rely upon the Legends actually giving up their totems. She could tell that Sara was worried that Amaya and Zari wouldn't be willing to give up their precious family heirlooms so she wasn't too convinced that her act of defiance would work. There was also the fact that the moment that Mallus invaded her mind again, she wasn't sure that she would even care anymore about Sara's pain. In fact, she was fairly sure that she would probably revel in the captain's grief and she wouldn't be strong enough to resist the darker part of herself that honestly made her sick to her stomach when she realised what she did.

She smiled weakly at her father and nodded, he didn't need to know about these wavering moments. He didn't need to know that there were ever moments when she regretted dedicating her life to bringing him back. That there were moments where she yearned for the normal life she could have lived following his death, a life with no world domination or Time Demons that would eventually take control of her entire being.

Damien frowned at her as he took some steps closer towards her. He might still be getting used to his baby girl now being an adult, but he was fairly certain that he could still tell when there was something wrong with her.

Before he could press the matter, however, a beeping emitted from his wrist and he looked down to see an incoming call from the Waverider.

In a split second, his expression went from concerned father to a man delivering a deadly ultimatum and he accepted the call.

Unexpectedly, it wasn't a pissed off Sara Lance who appeared before him, but was Amaya whose expression was a mix of anger and exhaustion.

Nora, on the other hand, was not too surprised to not see Sara, she doubted that she would be willing to face the mans he hated with all her being when she felt so broken.

"I assume that you're not calling to give up so soon, it doesn't seem to be in the Legend's nature," Damien glowered.

Amaya clenched her jaw, very clearly wising that its as possible to attack through a holo-feed.

"You said that Ava had twenty-four hours, it's been twelve and I find it highly doubtful that she'll make it another twelve," Amaya said with narrowed eyes.

Darhk frowned and looked over his shoulder at his daughter who was still very much silent, he was expecting her to shoot some kind of quip at the totem bearer.

"Well,I guess I got the whole twenty-four hour thing wrong, it was sort just for dramatic effect and how do you know that your 'cures' aren't making it worse?" Damien shrugged along with his patented laugh, "but there is one easy way to fix all of your problems."

He gestured to her neck and Amaya looked down for a moment at her totem before she looked back up at the man.

She was really beginning to question why she had even called, it wasn't as if Dahrk was suddenly going to give her the antidote just because he got the timeline wrong.

Damien smirked at her, but before he could say anything, Nora stood from her chair to pull out the phial of blue liquid which she held up to Amaya.

"Just give us the totems and you'll have this," Nora said, "you can't honestly tell me that those trinkets are more important than your captain's girlfriend."

Amaya drew her eyebrows together as she inspected Nora. Usually, she would have assumed that the woman was just trying to provoke her in the same way that her father was, but there was something in her expression that was almost pleading. She didn't look anything like the woman who was possessed by the time demon, she actually seemed like a decent person even if she was still threatening her.

The totem bearer opened her mouth to say something, but she looked over her shoulder as if she was distracted by something. A second later the feed cut off and she disappeared.

Damien just laughed and walked over to place his arm around his daughter.

"Good job, honey," he said and failed to notice the way that she clenched her jaw.

S

-Meanwhile-

Amaya was about to open her mouth to reply to Nora, but the sound of footsteps behind her cut off the attempt and she quickly ended the call so that whoever it was wouldn't see who she was talking to.

Her eyes fell onto Sara who stumbled slightly as she entered the Library. She was now completely pale, her eyes were puffy and red from crying and Amaya had to assume that she didn't feel much better than she looked.

It had been a couple hours since her panic attack and Amaya wasn't too convinced that she had fully calmed down, not that she could blame her since Ava had flatlined once more since then.

"Sara?" She asked and walked over to to her to place a hand onto her shoulder.

The captain swallowed hard, as if she was trying to figure out if there was any liquid left in her body after all of the crying that she had done and she took her deep breathed.

"She flatlined again," the captain said absently, "it took an extra twenty seconds to bring her back...I..."

Amaya squeezed her shoulder, she wanted to say that it would all be okay, but she wasn't really believing that herself at this point.

"Miss Tomaz is on her way to the Library as you requested, Captain Lance," Gideon announced.

Amaya drew her eyebrows together as Sara took a step back and rubbed her hand over her face. She was stopped from asking what was going on by the arrival of the air totem bearer.

Zari exchanged a look with Amaya as she walked into the room, her usual quips went unsaid as she laid eyes on Sara.

"What's going on, Sara?" Zari asked softly.

Sara's eyes fell down to her neck and she quickly licked her very dry lips, she honestly wasn't sure how she was going to ask this but she knew that she had no choice at this point.

"Caitlin…she said that she didn't think that Ava would make it if she…" she looked down to the floor and took a deep breath, "I know that it would be stupidly dangerous to give Mallus the totems but…I need Ava to stay alive. I get that they're family heirlooms and so important to both of you but…she's so important to me…"

Zari and Amaya exchanged a glance as they had a silent conversation they both seemed to agree that they were having the same thoughts. They had both decided earlier that if it came to this, what they would do.

Sara continued to look at the ground for a few seconds and finally forced herself to look up when there was no verbal response. She frowned as she just caught the sight of both women reaching up to their necks to remove the totems around them.

With no hesitation, they each handed her their totems and then Amaya went over to the desk to pick up the Fire and Earth totems that she had gotten earlier and also handed them to her.

Sara swallowed hard and blinked at the trinkets in her hand. She knew how important they were to the existence of all of time, but with them held in her hands, she really couldn't see that they were worth more than the love of her life.

She was slowly realising that the team must have gotten the Fire and Earth totems in advance, which could only mean that they had been prepared for hours to give them up for Ava.

Tears obscured her vision and Zari placed her hand onto the captain's shoulder.

"Are you really sure about this?" Sara asked weakly as she looked over to Zari and then to Amaya.

"There's still one more totem and we'll get these back soon anyway. We can survive without them until then," Zari explained and Amaya nodded in agreement.

The captain took in another shaky breath as hope suddenly invaded her system, she could question later when Zari had become so optimistic, it probably had something to do with spending so much time with Ray.

"Thank you," she said shakily.

s

Damien Darhk was surprised to get the call so soon to say that they were giving up, but he figured that it was probably his fault for underestimating how long the poison would take to destroy Agent Sharpe's body.

With the conditions that Wally wouldn't be on board, he agreed to bring the antidote and exchange it for the totems.

Nora stood behind him with her jaw clenched, she was really hoping that the Legends wouldn't try anything since if they didn't get the totems and Ava survived, she was sure that Mallus would make her suffer.

"Oh she looks rough," Damien laughed as his eyes fell onto the unconscious woman. Caitlin was standing next to her with her eyes narrowed at the man and he had to assume that she was there if the agent's heart should stop again.

He looked over to Sara who had Amaya and Zari standing behind her, she looked like she was trying to stop herself from saying something scathing in reply, probably because she was too exhausted to come up with something that would rattle him.

"Do you have the antidote?" Amaya asked.

Nora nodded and pulled the phial out of her pocket and held it up to them.

Sara looked down to the totems in her hand and then over to the antidote. She took a couple breaths as she imagined what Ava would say to her if she currently knew that she was doing this, but she found that she would much rather have that argument with her rather than living in a world where she would never be able to.

She looked over to Amaya and Zari to double check that they were still onboard with this and they both nodded encouragingly.

Sara took a couple steps over to the man who she was sure she hated most in the entire multi-verse and she held the totems out to him; however, when he tried to take them from her, he found that she was gripping them too hard.

The man rolled his eyes and motioned to Nora who walked over to give the phial to Caitlin, the moment that it was in her hands, Sara released the totems into Dahrk's hands and took a step back.

Doctor Snow made short work of pulling out a syringe and injecting the antidote into the agent's arm. She would normally have spent the time to test it first, but she didn't see that it would make a difference here. If the antidote was a fake, there wasn't much that could be done anyway and it seemed unlikely that Damien would have done something to make Ava worse since there didn't seem to be much worse that she could get.

Damien wanted to stay and see Sara's face when nothing happened, but at the same time, he knew that it would be foolish to stay where there was the possibility that they could get the totems back.

He took a step back and was about to reach down to press the button on the Time Courier but he found that there was nothing on his wrist. He frowned and looked over to see that Sara was holding it in her hand as she looked hopefully at her girlfriend and then he actually smirked when he realised that she had somehow managed to take it while handing over the totems. Even at her most distraught, she was still able to think about the little things and he had to admit that it was quite impressive.

As he did so, he didn't notice the way that Nora was looking at the scene hopefully before she took a step forward to grab his arm and use the stone to take them away from the Waverider. She didn't need him to see that she hadn't been strong enough to go through with Mallus's plan. At least if they found out later that Ava had survived, she could pretend that the Legends must have just found another way to bring her back, she was sure that they didn't really need Sara. To give into Mallus for the plan to work anyway.

None of the other women in the Med Bay noticed the Dahrks disappear as they all kept their eyes firmly on the agent.

For a few excruciating moments, absolutely nothing happened. Caitlin swallowed hard and made a point of not looking away from the heart monitor since she didn't want to see the expression on Sara's face. Ava's heart rate was already lower than she would like it to be and she was now considering the possibility that Damien could have given them a fake antidote, after all, there wasn't really any incentive for him to give them a real one.

Amaya stepped up beside her captain and placed her hand onto her shoulder for what felt like the millionth time that day and she squeezed, silently telling her to just have hope. However, Sara just continued to stare with a blank expression as nothing happened.

All of the possibilities were going through her head.

Damien could have tricked them or they could have taken too long. What if she had simply agreed to his terms straight away, would Ava have woken up earlier and avoided all of the pain that she was currently going through?

She swallowed hard and forced herself to look away from Ava and to the floor as tears obscured her vision blurred with tears.

But a moment later, the silence was broken by a sudden high pitched beep designed to signify a change in her heart rate.

Sara's eyes shot up, she was used to the sound meaning that she was flatinling, but this time it appeared as if her heart rate was going the other rate.

She bit the inside of her cheek and looked over to Caitlin for confirmation and the doctor smiled as she turned around the the vitals displayed on the screen.

"She's going to be okay," Doctor Snow breathed.

S

-Two hours later-

Sara sat cross legged on the chair beside Ava's bed.

After many thank yous, Wally had been called to take Caitlin back to Team Flash and the rest of the team came to the med bay to find out what was going on. Sara explained to them that she gave Dahrk the totems and but that Ava was going to be alright, Gideon had informed her that she would wake up as soon as all of the sedative and pain killers had left her system.

The captain had expected them to be at least a little pissed that she had given up the totems after emphasising just how important they were to the mission, but instead she was relieved when the team simply cheered that Agent Sharpe was going to be okay. Nate and Ray immediately went to the Library to try and find a way to find the last totem, which they figured would give them the opportunity to get the others back when Damien and Nora inevitably tried to stop them.

Amaya and Zari both hugged Sara and said that they were going to bed, same as Wally and Mick just took the book back, but Sara was sure that she saw a little smile when he looked over at the still unconscious Ava.

She may still be unconscious but it was more than obvious that she was getting better. Her brow was no longer soaked with sweat and the black eye was fully gone. A look under the shirt revealed that the poison ridden wound was now nothing more than a gash which would certainly scar.

Despite the consequences to the timeline of giving up the totems, Sara couldn't find it in herself to feel anxious as she waited beside her girlfriend. She just wanted her to wake up and then they could deal with all of that later, preferably with Ava at her side.

As if she were reading the captain's mind, the woman started to stir and she drew her eyebrows together as her head moved to the side and she cracked her eyes open.

Sara sat fully to attention and squeezed the confused woman's hand as she took a moment to look around the med bay. Unlike earlier, it looked as though she was actually able to focus on things.

"Hey baby," Sara said softly.

"Hey," Ava replied, but her voice cracked and it only took a second for the other blonde to stand to get her some water. She held the glass up to the agent's face and helped her to steady it as she drank deeply.

Once Sara was satisfied that she had drank enough, she pulled it away and took her seat again.

She grabbed her hand again and rubbed her thumb over it, revelling in the fact that it was no longer as cold as it was earlier.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

Ava smiled at the blonde weakly and replied, "like I got poisoned."

"Funny," Sara laughed, though there was a little sob that accompanied it.

Ava frowned when she saw just how exhausted her girlfriend looked and it wasn't just in terms of sleep.

She pushed herself over as best as she could with one arm in a sling and she said, "come here."

Sara hesitated for a moment and Gideon said, "Agent Sharpe is perfectly ready for physical contact, Captain Lance."

"You heard the woman," Ava laughed and Sara actually smiled as she stood so that she could fall down onto the bed and she tucked herself into the other woman's side. Her head fell onto her shoulder and when Ava's good arm came around her waist to pull her closer, Sara felt a floodgate open and she began to openly sob onto her girlfriend's shoulder.

"Hey baby, it's okay," the agent whispered and brought her hand up to stroke her hair.

Sara shook her head and continued to cry against her shoulder,

Ava felt her heart break a little but decided to just wait for the other woman to calm down.

A few minutes passed and Sara's shoulders finally stopped shaking and she moved her head so that she could look at Ava, though it still remained on her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," Sara said and her voice cracked.

"For what?"

"You told me that you couldn't defy a direct order and I still asked you too, it's my fault that Bennett had a chance to do this to you," the captain sniffled.

"Neither of us knew that Bennett was in Mallus's pocket," Ava replied, "but I knew that he would be within his rights to arrest me if I defied him..."

"Then why would yo do it?"

Ava shrugged and said, "you asked me to...but honestly, I wouldn't have let anything happen to Ray, your team is important to you..."

Sara leaned over and placed a light kiss to her lips, still very conscious that the other woman wasn't fully healed, she could tell that she was still in pain and her arm was still broken.

"You are just as important tho me, Ava," she said firmly.

"I know," she replied instantly, "I knew that you would save me."

It was now Ava's turn to press a firmer kiss to their other woman's lips, and she relaxed a little when she felt Sara actually smile into the kiss.

Sara leaned back and smiled at her girlfriend, allowing herself to just stare at her for a second, but Ava brought her eyebrows together and asked, "how did you save me?"

The captain looked down. She wanted to have this discussion later, but she also didn't want to lie to the other woman.

"Damien gave us the antidote in exchange for...our totems..."

"Sara!" Ava exclaimed and tried to sit up more, but winced as pain shot through her body.

Sara placed her hand to her chest to push her back down and said, "like I said, you're important to me, Aves."

"I'm not more important than the timeline..."

"Yes you are," Sara said firmly and placed her hand onto her cheek, "if you didn't make it, I wouldn't have been able to stay on this team, Ava. We'll get the totems back somehow, but there's only one you."

Ava was about to protest that it was still incredibly stupid, but then she noticed the tears still staining the other blonde's face. She considered how she would feel if something was ever to happen to Sara, she knew that's he wouldn't be able to just continue fixing anachronisms as if nothing happened.

"Okay," she replied simply and moved her thumb to wipe away some of the tears, "so we'll just find a way to get the totems back."

"I love you so much," Sara sighed, "thank you for being okay."

"Any time," Ava replied and lay her head down with a little laugh.

Twenty minutes later, Nate strolled into the med bay just to check on things and a massive smile spread across his face when he found Sara finally asleep with a sleeping Ava's arm tightly around her waist. Sara's hand rested on Ava's chest as if she was keeping tabs on her heartbeat.

Citizen Steel brought his hand up activate his comm and said, "I think they're both okay now."

S

The following two weeks only served to make Sara feel better about what she thought was the most horrific twelve hours of her life.

With her arm still in a sling, since Gideon warned that it would be dangerous for Ava to return to the med bay after treating her at such a high frequency for so long, Agent Sharpe had yet to return to work. This meant that Sara got to spend practically two uninterrupted weeks with the woman she loved, with the exception of their attempts to find the final totem.

She certainly hadn't expected the final totem to be for Death, or for it to be integral to the the beginning of the Rock n' Roll, but at the same time, she wasn't too surprised to discover that it was the case.

With that totem safely hidden in a time period where no one but the Legends could ever stumble upon it, all that remained was to get the other totems back so that they would be able to fight Mallus, but in the meantime, they just continued to fix anachronisms, now assured that protecting time would stop Mallus.

Not that she was to know as of yet, but it would only be a week before the Legends managed to get all the totems in their patently stupid fashion. And that the team would collectively decide that they would never talk about the blue cloud of fluff that the time demon went down in.

For now, the captain had bigger worries.

For the last two weeks, she was used to waking up with her arms around Agent Sharpe, but that morning, Ava had to go for a meeting to discuss her position at the bureau.

They had agreed that it was probably just to apologise for the shit that she had gone through and to assure her that her position at the bureau was safe and to probably go through the policy of emotional trauma.

Sara was still anxious though as she sat on what she considered now to be their bed and watched the minutes tick by. There was a part of her that couldn't help but see this as the end of their two weeks of relative bliss. She knew that she was being over-clingy but she also didn't want Ava to go back to work, it would just mean that there would be hours where she wouldn't be able to see her everyday and after everything that happened, she couldn't imagine that there would ever be a time when she wouldn't want to be with Ava.

Mainly she was just rather selfishly wishing that the agent wouldn't be returning to work any time soon and she would have felt guilty about that if Ava had once mentioned that she was missing work during the last couple weeks. From what Sara could tell, the woman wasn't particularly excited about returning to the bureau and she had a feeling that it had something to do with the fact that her faith in them was now completely dashed.

She knew that Ava had once trusted all of the bureau's codes and procedures without question, but now that she had the perspective more akin to the Legends, it was much harder for her to agree with every order she had ever been given. There was also the fact that the organisation that she had once believed in with all of her being had allowed her to be tortured and poisoned.

Sara continued to stare at the clock until the buzzing sound tore her attention away from it and she was off the bed in a flash so that she could embrace Ava who now finally was allowed to use both of her arms to hug her back.

"I wasn't gone that long," Ava laughed as she enveloped her girlfriend, though there was no actual mockery behind her words, she had also got used to being around Sara for the majority of the day as well and she had been more than dreading going back to the bureau. There was an irrational part of her that thought that she would see Bennett and she started to consider what she would say to him, mostly she just wanted to beat the shit of him. However, she knew for a fact that Sara had already done so and that he was currently awaiting trial in the same cell that he had placed her in unfairly, apparently, his higher-ups didn't quite agree with his reasons for imprisoning her and she could only assume that was because they were trying to atone for the fact that they had put a traitor in charge.

"It was long enough," Sara replied and leaned up so that she could steal a kiss before she asked, "how did it go?"

Ava took a step back and went over to sit upon the bed and Sara followed her, sitting next to her and looking at her expectantly.

"Well...they asked me all these questions and said that I would need a psych evaluation but...they asked me to be the director..."

Sara drew her eyebrows together but a pit formed in her stomach, she couldn't help but think that Ava being director would mean that she would get to see her less and that a larger gulf would be built between them. Director Sharpe might not be quite so able to go against the rules to help the Legends, not that Sara was particularly hoping for them to ever be in that position again.

"That's great," she said, trying to maintain a certain level of excitement, she knew that her girlfriend had been working towards this for a long time and it was hard to think of anyone else who would be right for the job.

"I quit," Ava replied and Sara frowned deeply.

"You quit?" She repeated.

"I refused the promotion and then I quit as an agent, I don't want to work for the Time Bureau anymore," Ava replied and finally made eye contact with her confused girlfriend. Sara inspected her expression for a moment, she expected to see regret, but the woman just looked lighter than she had when she had been worrying about the meeting the night before.

Her superiors had been just as surprised when she quit instead of accepting their offers but they'd still agreed to her conditions to make up for what happened to her. She was allowed to keep her Time Courier, the bureau would have to start working better with the Legends and she would agree to do some consulting work should they ever need her, but she would never work for them full time again.

"But...why?"

"I can't trust any of them, except Gary..." Ava said, "and no one at the bureau would have given up the totems to save my life."

"Are you saying that you want to join the Legends?" Sara asked.

"I mean...only if you want me to," Ava said uncertainly, "I get if you don't want me around all the time, I can find some other job..."

Her rambling was cut off when Sara leaned forward to connect their lips and Ava melted into the kiss for a moment and pulled the shorter woman closer by her waist.

Sara disconnected her lips and leaned her head against Ava's and said, "I would love it if you became a Legend."

"Is that because a legend never dies?" Ava asked and Sara actually laughed more than she would have two weeks ago.

"That's one of the reasons," she chuckled.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed XD  
> A comment to let me know what you thought would be much appreciated :D  
> Tumblr- @Withgirl-sq


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